KENTUCKY. 



377 



sion, but it was not accepted. In the political 

 reaction which followed Mr. Van Buren's Ad- 

 ministration, several suits at law were brought 

 against Mr. Kendall by disappointed mail-con- 

 tractors, whose monopolies he had so sternly 

 resisted, in rescuing the Government from the 

 pressure of debt they were imposing upon it. 

 Declining to take any advantage of his official 

 privilege, Mr. Kendall met these suits alone 

 and at his own cost. In 1845 he became 

 associated with Prof. S. F. B. Morse in the 

 ownership of the telegraphic patents, and the 

 management of the organization, which ex- 

 tended their benefits to all portions of our 

 country, and to most of the countries of Europe. 

 Unquestioned as are the merits and genius of 

 Prof. Morse, it is not too much to say that, but 

 for the executive ability and the far-reaching 

 enterprise of Mr. Kendall, that great invention 

 would have been long delayed in its extension 

 and diffusion, and our communication with 

 Europe and Asia, and even with our own Pa- 

 cific coast, might not have taken place before 

 the close of the present century. Mr. Kendall 

 was. a devout Christian in his private life, and 

 took a very active interest in the prosperity 

 of the Baptist Church in Washington. The 

 Calvary Baptist Church, erected in 1864, was 

 built almost entirely by his contributions, 

 he having subscribed, at various times, about 

 $100,000 toward its erection. After its de- 

 struction by fire in 1867, he again contrib- 

 uted largely to have it rebuilt, it being his 

 intention to establish it as a memorial church 

 to his wife. His total contributions to the 

 church amounted to $115,000, and his con- 

 tributions to the Deaf and Dumb Asylum to 

 about $20,000. He was the founder of the 

 Deaf and Dumb Asylum. He was the first 

 president, and remained as one of the directors 

 up to the time of his death. Besides the above 

 gifts, Mr. Kendall, in the spring of 1869, 

 gave $10,000 worth of bonds to endow two 

 mission schools, and just before his death he 

 gave $15,000 more for the purchase of lots 

 and buildings. He was, for some years before 

 his death, president of the Board of Trustees 

 of the Columbian College, and had endowed 

 several scholarships in that institution. In 

 the autumn of 1865 he made the tour of 

 Europe, continuing his journey to Egypt and 

 Palestine, being absent about two years. 

 His investigation of the questions of Biblical 

 geography and literature connected with the 

 Holy Land was very thorough, and his ob- 

 servations were as accurate and comprehensive 

 as they could have been in his younger days, 

 when friends and foes alike gave him the 

 reputation of being the ablest and most in- 

 cisive writer in Washington. 



KENTUCKY. Quiet and order prevailed 

 generally throughout the State during the year. 

 In the early part of the summer, several acts 

 of violence were committed in Lincoln and 

 the adjoining counties, by marauding bands 

 of outlaws, headed by one Henderson Gooch, 



whose depredations were a serious annoyance 

 to the inhabitants of these counties. At the 

 request of the judge and the Commonwealth's 

 attorney of the circuit in which these dis- 

 orders occurred, Governor Stephenson with- 

 out delay called out the militia, both infantry 

 and cavalry, to maintain the supremacy of the 

 law ; order was promptly restored, and several 

 of those charged with violating the law were 

 arrested and committed to jail for trial. 



As the regular sessions of the General As- 

 sembly are biennial, and are limited in time to 

 sixty days, unless extended by a two-third vote 

 of all the members elected to each branch, it 

 was deemed necessary by the Legislature of the 

 preceding year to hold an extra session during 

 this year ; accordingly, this body met pursu- 

 ant to adjournment, on the 5th of January, 

 1869. The session was short, and the acts were 

 mostly of a local or personal nature. At 

 this session the fifteenth amendment to the 

 Constitution of the United States was con- 

 sidered. The vote was taken on the 12th of 

 March, which resulted in the rejection of 

 the measure by 27 nays to 6 yeas in the 

 Senate, and 80 nays to 5 yeas in the House. 

 An important measure of this session was 

 the provision for raising money in support of 

 the common schools of the State. The bill 

 provided for the levying of a tax of fifteen 

 cents on the hundred dollars, to be devoted ex- 

 clusively to school purposes, and for the sub- 

 mission of the question to a vote of the people 

 of the State. Notwithstanding the proposed 

 assessment was three times greater than any 

 previous tax for a similar purpose ever before 

 submitted to a popular vote in Kentucky, the 

 measure was carried at the election by a ma- 

 jority of twenty-five thousand votes. A bill 

 was also passed providing for the establish- 

 ment of a House of Reform for Juvenile De- 

 linquents. Pursuant to the provisions of this 

 act, a location for the institution was selected 

 in Jefferson County, and a tract of land con- 

 taining two hundred and thirty acres was pur- 

 chased at a cost of $20,000. The work is now 

 under contract, and the buildings will be com- 

 pleted and ready for the reception of subjects 

 by the 1st of September, 1870. 



The political canvass opened with the Ee- 

 publican State Convention, which assembled 

 at Lexington, on the 27th of May. Ex- Attor- 

 ney-General James Speed presided over the 

 convention. The only candidate chosen was 

 one for the office of State Treasurer, for which 

 Mr. E. B. Wing received the nomination. The 

 convention adopted the following platform : 



I, That we regard the inaugural of President 



Grant as eminently wise and sound, and pledge our- 

 selves to support him in administering the General 

 Government upon the principles therein announced. 



Resolved, That we heartily recommend the ratifica- 

 tion of the fifteenth amendment, believing that it 

 will eminently conduce to the peace and welfare of 

 the country. 



Resolved, That the fundamental principle of the 

 Eepublican party equal rights under the law is ap- 



